Stop Shooting in Portrait Mode
This is something that really really bothers me. Vertical video. Trying to watch an online video and all of a sudden a clip of video pops up that has huge black bars on either side. Somebody decided to shoot their video with their phone in portrait mode, and now I am totally dis-interested in whatever I am watching.
All that person had to do was turn their phone into landscape. There would be no black bars, there would be no distraction, and I would probably have finished watching the video. What's even worse? The blurry video sides. The people who think they are so clever and so distinguished that they take the same video, they blow it up to the full size of the screen, and they blur it. Talk about distracting!
What should be done?
To me it's pretty simple. If somebody is shooting actual video no their phone, then the phone should automatically switch to landscape. It's really that simple. That way, video being taken on a phone will never become an issue. Now, this is not to say that people can't switch it back into portrait mode. If they need portrait mode for whatever reason than they can still switch back to it.
The problem that I have is who actually needs portrait video for anything? The biggest argument is that people like to watch vertical content because their phones are vertical. THEN TURN YOUR PHONE! It really is not that hard. Turn your phone to take the video, turn your phone to watch the video. VERY SIMPLE. Video content should be in an aspect ration that allows you to view the video as intended. Even Instagram now accepts video formats in their true aspect instead of forcing it to be square. Keep in mind, this is for actual video content. Things like Snapchat and Periscope do not apply here.
Where Should It Be Used?
The short answer is nowhere. For any video content that is going to be shared after the fact it should never be used. That being said, Facebook Live Streaming, Periscope Streaming, Snapchat, they are all good uses of vertical video because it doesn't affect the quality of the content. There is something constantly going on and you are tuned into what is happening rather than trying to find or do something after the fact. What I am specifically targeting is shared video. Video that isn't live, and last for more than the 10 seconds of Snapchat. Anything that a person is going to sit down and watch needs to be shot landscape. This article from DigiDay explains the fad in a decent amount of detail: Why We Should Take Vertical Video Seriously.
My Phone is Vertical, So Should Video
Yah well guess what! Monitors aren't. TV's aren't. Cinemas aren't. THE MAJORITY OF SCREENS AREN'T! A lot of people still like to sit down and watch content. On their tablets, on their monitors, on their TVs, in the movie theater. And if you had those huge black bars on the video in those kinds of places? Those videos wouldn't be given the chance to even remotely become successful. Those big bars would be largely distracting and it would turn people away.
This all goes back to society being lazy. Seriously, just turn your phone. If you are going to shoot video, turn. your. phone. It really is that easy. For more information on the subject from those people that are smarter and use bigger words than I, you can find an article from
Wired Magazine: Video In Portrait Mode
and a really nice PSA from
Gizmodo: Vertical Video PSA
Till Next Time,
